The Trial on the Mothership
by Grac3
Summary: Part six of the Loki and the Doctor series. The Avengers were never supposed to get to New York. The Other is not happy. Beamed onto the Chitauri mothership with a familiar Stark Industries employee and a nuke heading straight for them, there's only one man who can help Loki now. Episode tag: Avengers / Post-Terror of the Autons/Pre-The Green Death. See warnings inside.


**Warnings:** Mentions of violence, guns, reference to torture, character death

 **Spoilers for: The Name of the Doctor, Guardians of the Galaxy (but very slight, really only a reference)**

 **Series summary:** When he was a child, Loki got a visit from a man who told him that he was a time traveller, and that they would meet many times throughout the prince's life; but he wouldn't always look the same, nor hold the same company. And, many times throughout the prince's life, that's exactly what happened.

 **Disclaimer: Don't own Doctor Who or Avengers, or the few lines from Avengers**

* * *

Well, he thought as he lay there in a concrete crater groaning slightly, at least the giant green rage-monster had recognised him as a god.

He lay there, unmoving, as pain radiated through his body.

He wondered what would happen if the Chitauri had a Hulk on their side.

He shuddered at the thought.

Outside the broken window, the sounds of war were raging. Glass was breaking and buildings were crumbling, the Chitauri were firing their weapons and lives were being lost.

His hands were being covered in the blood of innocents, and he wasn't sure he could wipe out that much red.

High above him, the alien forces were still making their way through the portal, overwhelming the Earth's Mightiest Heroes as they fought to keep the city from falling. It didn't seem to matter to any of them that one of them wasn't of Earth. A brief flicker of guilt fluttered through him at the thought of his not-brother. He wondered how well he was faring, trying to fight with a stab wound in his side.

He was distracted by a _ping_ from somewhere beyond his feet, followed by _clip-clopping_ and tearful gasps.

Loki stiffened. He wondered if he had been buried deep enough that whoever it was wouldn't notice him.

To his horror, the footsteps stopped somewhere very near his shoulder. The sobs were silenced, and for a moment, Loki could pretend that he was there on his own.

That was, until a scream ripped through the air.

He jumped, jarring his injuries; he winced in pain.

Looking straight up, he saw a woman leaning over him, one shaking hand pressed against her mouth, wide eyes staring down at him. She was wearing high heels, a black pencil skirt, and a white blouse. A lanyard was hanging from around her neck, an ID card dangling just in front of her stomach. He could just make out the words 'Stark Industries' next to her picture.

Still trembling, the woman took a single step back, lowering her hand and revealing her face.

Loki forgot all about his injuries.

"Clara?" he croaked.

Clara yelped, tottering a few steps back as quickly as she could in her ridiculous heels.

"How do you know my name?" she demanded, her accent a strange mixture of the one she had had when Loki had been a boy and the one held by the man whose floor he was currently a part of.

Loki opened his mouth to remind her about her visit to his childhood bedroom with the Doctor, but immediately slammed it shut again. It was obvious that this Clara didn't know who he was – or, at least, not through the Doctor.

Loki tried to sit up. It took him much longer than he was comfortable with, and even then, he had to abandon a decent posture, the weight of pain and defeat resting too heavily on his shoulders for him to lift them out of a slump. Clara took the opportunity of his sluggish movements to back away a little further.

He sighed, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand.

"Clara, I am not going to harm you."

"Stop calling me that!" she all but screamed.

Rolling his eyes, Loki looked over at her. "That is your name, is it not?"

Clara's face screwed up, and for a moment, she looked as though she were about to burst into tears again. "Not to you. You don't get to call me that."

Loki gestured meaninglessly with his hand, holding it out to his side. "Then what do I call you?"

" _Boy_!"

The shout echoed through the room, shaking the walls and the floor. The last intact window shattered, sending large shards of glass falling to the ground below.

Clara nearly lost her balance, while Loki gasped in pain as the shockwaves went through the floor and then through him. He wrapped an arm around his torso, trying to keep his undoubtedly shattered ribs in place. His other hand was pressed into the floor, his fingers pressing hard into the floor as he grit his teeth against the pain.

"What was that?" Clara asked, looking up to the ceiling.

Suddenly, faint blue lights began to shimmer around Loki and Clara, enveloping their bodies and gradually growing with intensity.

"What's happening?" Clara demanded.

Loki smirked, though it came out as more of a grimace. "It seems we're being given an audience."

"With wh-"

Clara didn't get a chance to finish; the blue light completely engulfed the two of them.

In the year that he had spent in the Sanctuary, Loki had been introduced to many Chitauri technologies. Transportation was one of his least favourites. The sensation of being pulled apart and then moved, only to be put back together again somewhere completely different, was hideously disorientating – even when you hadn't just been pummelled repeatedly into three foot-thick cement.

When the two of them reappeared in the mothership, miles above where they had been a few moments ago, Loki couldn't hold down the groan as the world spun alarmingly before his eyes. His eyes slipped closed, and he raised a hand to his head in an effort to stop the nausea. It only took a few deep breaths before it began to pass.

"-o?" Clara finished, and from somewhere to his left, Loki heard her gasp and then scream.

Peeling his eyes open and blinking the last of the blurs away, he looked over to see her looking around at the Chitauri soldiers which surrounded them. Two foot soldiers marched up to her, grabbing one of her arms each and pinning them against her sides. She made a futile attempt to shake them off, but their grip was too strong.

"What is the meaning of this?"

Trying to ignore the way that voice sent shivers down his spine, Loki turned to his left and looked up.

The Other was towering over him.

Placing both of his battered palms on the floor, Loki pushed himself up, managing to reach his full height before his knees buckled beneath him.

The Other flicked his head towards two Chitauri and they made their way over to the trickster, grabbing one of his arms each and hauling him back up. Loki loathed that they had to hold him, but the weakness in his legs reminded him that – while undesirable – it was, unfortunately, necessary.

The Other stood not five feet from him, fuming from beneath his hood. His mouth – the only part of his face that was visible – was taught into a thin, tight line, his jaw quivering visibly.

Loki chuckled, flashing the Other a wide smile.

"Why, whatever seems to be the matter?"

The Other growled, peeling his lips open so that his jagged teeth were visible. Loki's smile faltered, and he tried to force himself to forget his fear.

"They were scattered!" the Other yelled. From somewhere behind him, Loki heard Clara yelp. "Their flying fortress fell from the sky! _Your words_." The Other pointed a bony finger at him. "And yet you manage to be felled by one of them. Tell me – why should we help you take over this planet, now that there is no hope for you bringing the Tesseract to us?"

The smile slipped completely. Memories of pain, brought to him from miles away, making him all but recoil from the figure before him.

"Now, hold on," he began, his voice stronger than he was, "there is no reason why I cannot yet pass the Tesseract over to you. You forget that you would not get it anyway, until the war was won. Until the Earth was mine. I need it to keep the portal open, to let your forces through. Without it, I will not get what I want, and without me getting what I want, you will not get what you want."

The Other lowered his hand, his entire body trembling with rage.

" _Boy_ , you do not know with whom you deal. Thanos will get the Tesseract with or without your help. You were an accessory."

A flicker of a memory – of long blonde hair and scared blue eyes – flickered into Loki's mind.

"You tried to kill someone to get me to work with you."

"And you have sped our plans along nicely. Thanos will have his Infinity war. Whether he gains the Tesseract today, with your help, or later, without it, is of no consequence. To either him or me."

"Then why don't you just kill me now?"

The Other paused, considering. Then, to Loki's horror, he nodded to the Chitauri soldier standing on his left side, who raised his weapon at the trickster.

"The humans think you immortal," the Other sneered. "Shall we test that?"

Loki's heart hammered in his chest, his eyes were fixed on the gun pointed at him, and something in his brain flickered – an emotion he hadn't felt for so long: a love, for the only two people who had ever truly cared about him before…

He was brought from his reverie by an all-too-familiar sound. A wheezing sound, from somewhere behind him. Clara yelled again, and the Chitauri bristled. All weapons were suddenly trained on a space behind Loki that he couldn't see, for he was still being held firmly in place. A creaking noise sounded, along with footsteps.

"This time, I have it right. I am sure of it. Welcome, Jo, to Metebelis 3… Oh."

Fifty Chitauri weapons raised in the direction of the noise. Loki turned his head to look over his shoulder, his heart dropping as he realised that the Doctor who had stepped out of the TARDIS wasn't one he recognised.

"I say," the Doctor – who was wearing a luscious velvet suit and a shirt with a frilly collar and sleeves – said, his voice clipped, as he closed the door after his companion. He had been followed out of the TARDIS by a short woman with short blonde hair, who was currently regarding the Chitauri weapons with fearful eyes. "This isn't a very warm welcome."

Loki could practically feel the Other bristling.

"You have interrupted our trial," he hissed. "Who are you?"

"He is the Doctor," Loki explained.

The Doctor and his companion seemed confused.

Clara stared at him as though he had grown another head.

The effect on the Chitauri, however, was immediate. The foot soldiers all took a step back from the Time Lord. A moment later, the Other nodded, and they couldn't seem to pack their weapons away fast enough.

The Doctor's brow furrowed as he surveyed the room, seemingly just as confused as to what had just happened as Loki was. Nevertheless, he took advantage of the situation, and turned to the Other.

"This is a trial, you say?" he asked, holding his hands together behind his back. "May I ask who is on trial?"

The Chitauri soldiers holding him turned him around, so that he was facing the Doctor. He grit his teeth together to stop himself grunting in pain. The Doctor turned to the trickster, looking him up and down. There was no recognition in his eyes.

"What for?"

"He has failed us," the Other supplied immediately.

Loki couldn't believe what was happening. In the year that he had known the Other, he had never given in to the authority of anyone except for Thanos, and even that was done rather begrudgingly. For him to willingly submit to the Doctor on nothing more than his name was baffling.

"Failed you?" the Doctor exclaimed, his eyebrows raising into his curly, white hair. "Pray tell, how has this man managed to do that? And in such a way as to warrant what I can only say is less of a trail and more of a sentencing hearing?"

There was a pause before the Other replied.

"We are attempting a mission. His actions have proved detrimental to that mission."

"And what was your mission?" the Doctor asked.

The Other stayed silent, unwilling to answer. Loki spoke up for him.

"To conquer Earth."

The Chitauri on his right twisted his arm, and this time he couldn't help but wince in pain. He was silently grateful that that was all the trouble he got for speaking out of turn.

The Doctor's reaction was immediate; his eyes widened with a fury that Loki had only ever seen in the eyes of the Time Lord. He rounded on the Other.

"Jo, get back inside the TARDIS."

"Doctor-" Jo began to protest, but the Doctor's expression was one of unconcealed fury, and even from where she was standing, Jo seemed to know better. Biting her lip, she backed away into the TARDIS, the door creaking as she closed it behind her.

The Doctor took a step towards the Other.

"Is this woman your hostage?" he snapped, gesturing behind him to Clara.

"She was caught in the transporter ray when we brought the Jotun up from Earth. She is of no consequence to us."

"Then you will send her back immediately."

"The Transporter only works one way," the Other stammered, and Loki almost wanted to laugh at the fear in his voice. Even when he had been speaking with Thanos and the titan had been threatening the intricacies of his very existence, he had never shown so much outward terror.

"Then you will allow me to take her home in my TARDIS, as you will allow me to take this man back." He gestured to Loki.

The Other stepped forward.

"This man is our responsibility, to do with as we see fit. You have no right to him."

"Then how do I know his name?" Loki barked, and this time, the adrenaline pumping through his veins at the prospect of being allowed to leave here unscathed – and in the safety of the Doctor – anaesthetised the pain in his left arm as it was twisted by the other Chitauri holding him in place.

The Other walked forward slowly, each of his footfalls sending a jolt of fear through Loki's chest. He stood next to Loki.

"The many names of the Oncoming Storm are known throughout the entire universe, including his alias as the Doctor. You have travelled in the Void. You know the pathways between worlds. There is no reason why you shouldn't know the name of the Doctor."

In desperation, Loki rounded on the Doctor, who had a slight level of fear in his own eyes.

"Doctor, please! Tell them you know who I am!"

The Doctor turned to Loki, and the trickster realised that he hadn't been hiding his recognition at all – this was the first time that the Doctor had met him: he genuinely didn't know who he was.

The Doctor pursed his lips. He looked from Loki to the Other and back again.

"His name is Loki."

The Doctor turned on his heel to face Clara. Her eyes were wide, as though she hadn't expected herself to speak.

The Doctor's brow furrowed as his eyes fell on her properly for the first time.

"Do I know you?" he asked, so quietly that Loki had to strain to hear it. If Clara heard it, she didn't pay attention. Now that she had the confidence, she just kept going.

"He has attacked New York and killed hundreds of people."

"I have only killed eighty people," Loki interrupted. "The numbers were made up by the Chitauri."

Clara glared at Loki with a hatred of which he had believed, up to this point, only he was capable.

"He is an enemy of the Earth."

"If he is an enemy of the Earth, then what does that make us?" the Other asked tauntingly.

Clara turned to the Other, shaking furiously from head to toe. A tear slipped down her cheek, though she made no sound.

"You're an enemy of Earth, too."

The Other's mouth slowly stretched into a grin. The sight was enough to send shivers down the trickster's spine.

"When we discovered that the Tesseract was on Earth," he began, his smooth voice slithering over the words as he took a step closer to the human, "we thought that our task would be easy. Now we see that the humans will not merely lie down meekly. They fight back. We like the ones that fight back. They are so fun to destroy."

The Other snatched a weapon from the nearest Chitauri soldier, raising it to Clara.

The Doctor quickly reached into his pocket, pulling out a strange, thin device and aiming it at the Other's weapon. He pressed a button on its side, and the device made a strange buzzing noise. Before the Other had a chance to shoot Clara, the fuel pack on his weapon exploded, smoke lightly billowing from the now broken barrel.

Clara stumbled backwards a step, her face paling at least two shades.

The Other threw the weapon to the ground in a rage, rounding on the Doctor.

"You have no authority here. You are the one who handed us the Jotun in the first place. This is your doing."

The Doctor would have no idea what the Other was talking about, but he didn't show it.

"If it is my doing, then it is my responsibility to stop it." The Time Lord turned to the trickster. "Loki, come with me."

The hands around Loki's arms tightened.

"He will do no such thing!" the Other spat, but the Doctor levelled him with a steely glare and he hesitated.

The soldiers holding Loki in place faltered at their master's hesitation; their grip loosened, and it was all that the trickster needed to break free. He shoved the hands holding him aside just as a warning klaxon began to ring throughout the entire ship.

The soldiers looked up at the lights now flashing around the ceiling.

"What's going on?" the Other hissed, just as a soldier ran into the room through a sliding door.

"The humans," the soldier stuttered. "The man of iron. He is approaching the ship. He is carrying something, but we are still trying to identify it."

"Loki, get into the TARDIS," the Doctor ordered.

Loki didn't need telling twice. While the soldiers were distracted, he ran towards the time ship, flinging himself through the door.

"What's going on?"

Loki had to blink against the sheer brightness of the control room: everything was a bright white, with strange circles cut into – out of? – the walls. Jo was standing on the other side of the console.

"Where's the Doctor?"

"He's still outside," Loki explained as he walked around the console to join her, wanting nothing more than to put as much distance between him and the Chitauri – and, more specifically, the Other – as possible.

And then, preferably, collapse somewhere warm and safe where he wouldn't have to worry about Chitauri or staffs or Infinity Stones ever again.

"Clara, let's go." The Doctor said from outside the door, and Loki and Jo watched as he grabbed her hand and began to pull her in the direction of the still-open TARDIS door.

The Other howled with rage, and Loki's heart stopped for a beat when he heard the all-too-familiar sound of a Chitauri weapon firing, followed by a scream of pain.

The Doctor hobbled into the TARDIS, slamming the door shut behind him as he lowered the gasping, pale, and shaking form of Clara to the ground. Reluctantly, he left her there, heading for the console and beginning to work feverishly.

"Doctor?" Jo asked, her voice weak as she stared at the convulsing form of Clara lying on the floor.

"I've configured the TARDIS Odyssey Facilitators to the coordinates of the Chitauri transporter," the Doctor explained quickly. "We can follow the coordinates back to where they picked Loki and Clara up from."

A moment later, the time rotor began to move, setting the TARDIS into flight.

Once they were on the move, the Doctor walked back around and kneeled down next to Clara. She was looking up at him with wide eyes.

"It'll be alright, Clara," the Doctor placated, resting a hand on the top of her head, his thumb lying across her forehead. "You were very brave."

Clara chuckled, the sound breathy and full of pain. "Should've… let them shoot you. You would have… regenerated, no?"

The Time Lord blinked, an impressed smile pulling at his lips. "And how would you know a thing like that?"

Clara raised a trembling hand and lifted the Stark Industries ID card off of her stomach. "Mr Stark likes to hack S.H.I.E.L.D. computers. I like to hack his computers." The card slipped from her fingers. Her hand dropped onto her stomach. "You sure do like to run, don't you… Doctor?"

The Doctor smiled. "It is rather fun."

A grin grew on Clara's face. "Run." Her smile disappeared as coughing took her breath away. "Run, you clever boy. And remember."

Clara's eyes slipped closed, and her trembling ceased. From beside him, Loki heard a despairing sob. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jo put a hand to her mouth. Her eyes were glittering with tears.

A loud sound, like the chiming of a great iron bell, resounded throughout the TARDIS as the time rotor ground to a halt. The Doctor remained on the floor, kneeling next to Clara's body, as he addressed the trickster.

"The TARDIS should have brought you home, Loki. From where the Chitauri picked you up."

Loki let out a humourless breath of laughter. "Those two places are not one and the same."

The Doctor turned to the trickster as he made his way around the console to the door, leaving the teary Jo behind.

"Then where is your home? Jötunheim?"

Loki cringed. "No. I know not where my home is."

Loki paused by the door to the TARDIS, as the Doctor looked up at him with fascinated curiosity.

"Have we met, Loki?"

Loki smiled sadly, trying not to think about how much it hurt for the man before him to have no idea who he was.

"I have met you. You, it would seem, have not yet met me."

The Doctor nodded. "I look forward to doing so."

Loki gave the Doctor a small bow, before leaving the TARDIS for the crater in the floor of Stark Tower.

* * *

 **A.N.:** Next time, we'll be back to crossovers with Thor. No more Avengers crossovers as we move into MCU phase 2. We're also over halfway now. I'll try and write more quickly than I did these last two stories, but as you can probably tell from the weird plots, they gave me a lot of trouble.


End file.
